But despite their smaller scale, petty acts of wickedness and malevolence that are calculated to harm others are no less "evil" simply because they harm fewer people. When a deliberate attempt is made by an Administration to take away the health care of millions of people, for no good reason except to spite one's predecessor, that is evil, because it results in arbitrary and unnecessary harm. When the Environmental Protection Agency is transformed into an entity whose sole purpose is to protect the profits of corporations that poison or pollute our land and streams, that is evil, because it results in unnecessary and serious harm, for the benefit of a select few. When child labor laws are challenged, or Payday lenders are coddled, or public lands are despoiled, or toxic chemicals are de-regulated in our drinking water, for no reason other than to line the pockets of political donors, that is evil because people are harmed as a result.
Equivocating or deflecting about the presence of "evil" is one of the surest signs of its existence. Expressing tacit toleration for Neo-Nazi marchers, declining to condemn violence against minorities and overtly stoking religious and racial resentments are all "wicked, bad, immoral and dishonorable," or at least they were prior to 2016, when they became commonplace behavior sanctioned by this Administration.
Corruption presents a peculiar type of evil, one whose effects are less dramatic but no less corrosive to the society. This Administration has already established itself as the most corrupt in modern American history. As pointed out in Adam Serwer's excellent essay last week in The Atlantic, the litany of corrupt dealings by this Administration in the last month alone is staggering:
"There's the president's attempt to aid the Chinese telecom company ZTE, mere hours after the Chinese government approved funding for a project in the vicinity of a Trump property in Indonesia. There's the millions of dollars corporations paid to Cohen after the election in an attempt to influence administration policy in their favor. Trump's Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, also the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, urged banks to pay off politicians in an effort to weaken the CFPB's powers legislatively -- since taking the helm of CFPB, Mulvaney has dropped a number of cases against payday lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates, after taking thousands from the industry as a congressman. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's own mini-universe of scandals stems from his improper relationships with industry figures, his misuse of taxpayer funds, and his attempts to obscure the truth about both. Trump attempted to pressure the Postmaster General to increase fees on Amazon in order to punish The Washington Post, which has published many stories detailing wrongdoing and misbehavior on the part of the Trump administration, and the Trump campaign before that. Not long after The New York Timesreported that Trump officials may have solicited campaign help not just from Russia, but also from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the president "demanded" that the Justice Department launch an inquiry into whether the FBI improperly investigated a campaign that was eagerly soliciting international aid to swing the election in its favor."
Republicans, particularly those of the Evangelical so-called "Christian" variety, would counter that all of the myriad malevolent actions by this Administration are counterbalanced by one thing -- the support of most Democrats for a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. That is the single justification trotted out in the minds of many, if not most Republicans for ignoring the blatant parade of malice and spiteful Executive Orders pushed in their faces every day by Trump. As a consequence of this, we are now faced with widespread tolerance by a very large segment of the population of just about any act of evil this Administration stoops to. That should give anyone pause who cares about the precedent this Administration is setting.
Neither Donald Trump nor anyone his Administration have shown any interest in doing much at all aside from enriching themselves at the expense of the American people. The daily scandals that emanate from Trump tend to dilute the fact that the one common characteristic displayed by nearly all of Trump's actions is their sheer spite and malevolence, particularly towards groups that do not support him. These are the actions of someone who views policy not as a set of principles, but as a means of administering punishment for perceived slights, or bestowing rewards for support. The harm that his actions cause to ordinary Americans is never, ever a consideration.
In dictatorships, that may be "business as usual." But in this country, we can and should call it what it is -- "evil
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
2
